Nan S. Leaptrott, founder and president of Global Business Consultants, is an internationally recognized authority, popular speaker, and author on global business protocol and practices.

She has addressed international forums such as the annual ComNet conference in Washington, DC, the National Speaker's Association, Toastmasters International, and the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus.

Her writings include regular columns for Worldwide Business Practices Report, Carolina Business Journal, Rules of the Game: Global Business Protocol, and the newly published Culture to Culture.

Ms. Leaptrott has led numerous seminars and training sessions for many of America's top corporate executives and professionals preparing themselves as players in the international marketplace. Her client list includes Amalgamated Apparel Manufacturers of America, General Electric, Glaxo Wellcome, John Hancock, Masco, Milliken & Co., Northern Telecom, and the U.S. Air Force in London.

Gerd Hofielen, a German national, is based in London. He has a solid background in Organizational Development and Human Resources Training. Together with his partners in the UK, France and Germany (www.discovery-consult.com), GBC is able to reach most of Europe with a broad range of training and consulting approaches. Gerd works with European and US companies to help them develop their international business strategies and their abilities to integrate management processes across borders. He helps companies build effective teamwork with a focus on managing international projects.

Gerd coaches individual managers and top management teams in new global assignments and cross-cultural challenges (transition management). He also delivers training programs that enhance the participant's capabilities in international negotiations. In the area of leadership-training programs, Gerd emphasizes the development of top and middle management team competencies that help deliver their company's strategy in the international arena. He supports the implementation of solutions by designing systems to monitor the desired outcomes.

To achieve personal change he applies the methods of Transactional Analysis, Neuro Linguistic Programming and the Tavistock model of group dynamics.

Gerd has earned Masters degrees in Business Administration and in Organizational Psychology. He studied organizational effectiveness in the USA with National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine and with Columbia University, New York.